In recent years controlling the size of nanomaterials or nanoparticles has become increasingly important as each type of nanoparticle has distinctive size-dependent properties. One important characteristic of nanoparticles is their large surface, which may be modified at the interfaces to meet desired specification. This modification is often referred to as stabilizing the particles. Stabilizing may also include forming the particles into larger superparticles. It has been demonstrated that ampiphilic block copolymers are advantageous for stabilizing nanoparticles as each block copolymer can be tailored to a desired use.
A common major drawback of yielding stabilized rare earth particles, is producing a particle size distribution which is not narrow or which is, at least, insufficiently narrow. Furthermore rare earth nanoparticles tend to agglomerate to form greater aggregates. Thus, serious need continues to exist for monodisperse rare earth particles having a uniform and narrowly defined particle size distribution.